"... the word raqia in Genesis 1:6–7, often translated “firmament,” stands in parallelism with “the heavens” in Psalm 19:1. In Psalm 150:1 the same word is parallel to “his holy place” and in apposition to “his strong place.” From these comparisons, the firmament is located in the heavens, and it is the site of divine enthronement in the heavens. The root appears in a verbal form in Job 37:18: “Can you, like him [God], spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?” (see Isaiah 44:24 for the same root in another creation allusion). The translation of the verb translated “to spread out” in this context is rendered to “stretch out” in NJPS. The D-stem of the verb is taken to refer to beating or hammering out metal plates (Exodus 39:3, Numbers 17:4, Isaiah 40:19). The context of Job 37:18 likewise suggests the activity of metal work, perhaps with the specific sense of the word as “molten,” translated as “cast metal” in NJPS. This root (yṣq) denotes pouring casting liquid metal in casts. The verb applies to the pouring of molten metals for the materials of the tabernacle conducted by the craftsman Bezalel (Exodus 25:12 and 37:3) and for furniture made by Kothar in the Baal Cycle ..."